MORE ABOUT DR. DEBBIE...She has combined her experiences as a physical therapist, researcher and educator to focus on improving functional and health outcomes for people with neurological injury or disease, specifically related to people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and spinal cord injury (SCI).

As part of the Eula C. and Andrew C. Carlos MS Rehabilitation and Wellness Program at Shepherd Center, she is focusing on the assessment of the health and wellness needs for people at varying stages of MS, and the evaluation of rehabilitation and exercise interventions that may be beneficial to people with MS.

Her clinical experience combined with her research interests has fueled a passion for facilitating the translation of evidence into clinical practice, including influencing clinicians in practice, payers for reimbursement of evidence based interventions, and policy makers related to health policy.

Dr. Debbie has presented both nationally and internationally, and has also published related to this work. She has been recognized for her contributions to rehabilitation by the ACRM (American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine) with the Deborah L. Wilkerson Early Career Award in Rehabilitation Research (2011), and the Academy of Spinal Cord injury Professionals with the Distinguished Clinical/Research Award (2010), and recently was named a Fellow of ACRM (2014).